Craft Farms is Gulf Shores’ best-known golf community. Homes here are built around two Arnold Palmer-designed courses, with lakes, sidewalks and brick, stucco and coastal-traditional architecture. Many backyards look out over a fairway or a lake, and that view usually drives how homeowners want to use their outdoor space.

This guide covers what to think about before adding a deck, screened porch, pergola or patio cover to a Craft Farms home: the view, the HOA, the weather and the details that make an outdoor room last on the Gulf Coast.

Start With the View and the Sun

On a golf or lake lot, the best seat in the house is usually the back of the house. Before choosing a structure, look at two things:

Sightlines: posts, beams and railings can frame a view or block it. Wider post spacing, a raised beam, or aluminum or cable railings keep the course or lake in sight from inside the house.
Sun direction: a west-facing backyard gets hard afternoon sun most of the year. A solid patio cover or a pergola with a louvered or solid roof makes the space usable at 5 p.m. in July. An open pergola alone won’t.

Screened Porches Make Sense on Golf Lots

If your yard borders a fairway, a screened porch does three jobs at once: it keeps out mosquitoes and no-see-ums, it gives you shade and rain cover, and it catches the occasional stray golf ball. A screened room built under a roof that ties into the house can also be set up for ceiling fans, lighting and an outdoor TV, which makes it feel like a real extra room.

We cover the trade-offs between screened and open-air designs in our guide to covered porches and screened decks.

Plan for HOA Review

Master-planned communities like Craft Farms usually have architectural guidelines that cover materials, colors, rooflines and setbacks. Expect to submit drawings for approval before the building permit. A few things that help:

Match roof pitch, shingle or metal color, and trim to the existing house so the addition looks original.
Choose column and railing styles that suit brick or stucco homes. Square, wrapped columns usually fit better than bare posts.
Submit a 3D design with your application. It answers most questions before the committee has to ask.

We prepare drawings and 3D designs as part of our design process, so the same plan goes to the HOA, the city and the build crew.

Build for Coastal Weather

Craft Farms sits a few miles inland, but it still gets salt air, humidity and hurricane-season wind. Outdoor structures here should be built for it:

Connections: hurricane ties, through-bolted beams and properly sized footings keep a patio cover or pergola attached to the ground and the house when the wind picks up.
Materials: capped composite decking and aluminum or composite railings hold up to humidity and UV far better than bare wood. See our comparison of composite decking for coastal UV and humidity.
FORTIFIED construction: if your home has a FORTIFIED designation, or you want one, an attached patio cover needs to be built to that standard. Red Branch is a FORTIFIED Gold provider, and we explain the details in FORTIFIED decks in Gulf Shores.

Drainage on Flat and Lakefront Lots

Much of Craft Farms is flat, and lake lots collect water. Before we pour footings or extend a slab, we look at where water goes today and where it will go after the addition. Gutters on a new patio cover, a slight slope on any new concrete, and keeping footings out of low spots all prevent problems later.

Popular Craft Farms Projects

Covered patios that extend an existing slab, with a roof tied into the house
Screened porches facing the course or a lake
Pergolas over a patio or pool deck for filtered shade
Outdoor kitchens with a grill, counter space and storage. See our Gulf Shores outdoor kitchen cost guide
Composite decks replacing older wood decks

Other Gulf Shores Neighborhoods We Serve

Besides Craft Farms, we build throughout Gulf Shores, including The Peninsula off Fort Morgan Road. Learn more about our outdoor living services in Gulf Shores and what to look for in a Gulf Coast deck builder.

Plan Your Craft Farms Project

If you’re thinking about a deck, screened porch, pergola or covered patio for your Craft Farms home, contact Red Branch Outdoor Living. We’ll visit, look at your view, your lot and your HOA requirements, and design a space built for the Gulf Coast.

Planning a kitchen? Read our guide to luxury outdoor kitchen builders in Gulf Shores.